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Pa. bill clouds future of Keystone Exams

HARRISBURG - The state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would delay using Keystone Exams as a high school graduation requirement and study whether the proficiency tests should be a graduation requirement at all.

HARRISBURG - The state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would delay using Keystone Exams as a high school graduation requirement and study whether the proficiency tests should be a graduation requirement at all.

The plan, which passed the Senate unanimously, would set the 2018-19 school year as the earliest to make the exams a graduation benchmark.

In addition, within six months of the act's becoming law, the Department of Education would be asked to "investigate and develop alternatives" to the tests, according to the bill.

The measure is likely to be signed into law. Gov. Wolf's spokesman said Wednesday that the governor supported it.

The tests, which cover subjects that include math, science, and literature, have sparked outrage and protests from some school districts and education-related groups across the state.

Over the summer, the superintendent of the West Chester Area School District said the exams could cause some struggling students to give up on being able to graduate. The acting superintendent of the Lower Merion School District said last spring that he opposed the tests.

Wolf said in a statement that he and Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera would meet with school officials, teachers, and others to discuss alternatives.

The Pennsylvania State Education Association supported Wednesday's action.

"Our members know from solid research and from our own classroom experience that forcing kids to take too many high-stakes standardized tests takes time away from actual teaching and real learning," union president Jerry Oleksiak said in a statement.

Nathan Mains, executive director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said Wednesday that he believed delaying implementation would be a positive step, allowing a variety of stakeholders to determine how or whether to use the tests.

"When you look at a lot of the other questions that are hanging over school districts right now," he said, referencing, among other things, budget uncertainty, "it just made a lot of sense that we take a pause here and figure out how all the pieces fit."

cpalmer@phillynews.com

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